Lil Peep's vocal is not clean, and that is the point. If you want to know how to sound like Lil Peep, stop chasing a perfect polished take. His sound is a soft, cracked, emotional delivery wrapped in grit, stacked hooks and a big washed out space. You can build that vocal chain in any DAW tonight, and this guide shows you exactly how.
Quick answer: light pitch correction, warm saturation, gentle compression, a dark plate or hall reverb, a slow quarter note delay, and hooks stacked many times over. The Lil Peep vocal preset loads that whole chain in one click.
Heads up: the settings below are a Lil Peep inspired starting point we built for producers. They are not a claim about the exact plugins or settings used on his records.
What makes the Peep sound
Gustav Åhr, known as Lil Peep, blended emo, pop punk and trap until it became its own lane. Records like Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 1 made that lane mainstream. The vocal is the emotional center of every song, so the mix serves the feeling first.
Here is what you are hearing:
- A soft, close delivery. He often sings quietly, almost talking, right on the mic. The breaths and cracks stay in.
- Grit instead of gloss. The vocal has a fuzzy, overdriven edge that sits with distorted guitar loops instead of fighting them.
- Huge stacked hooks. The chorus sounds like a crowd of the same voice.
- Space and blur. Long reverb and delay tails push the vocal into the beat so it feels distant and sad.
- Tuning you can feel. Pitch correction keeps the melody locked, but it is not the hard robotic effect of a pure trap vocal.
The 12 stack hook trick
This is the part most tutorials miss. According to producer Smokeasac, who worked closely with Peep, he recorded his own backing vocals and would stack a hook roughly a dozen times to get that wide, full sound. Smokeasac also said Peep mixed his own early tracks in GarageBand. That account is in a 2018 DJBooth feature on his recording process.
So the width is mostly performance, not plugins. Here is how to copy it:
- Record your main hook. Then record it again, and again. Aim for 6 to 12 takes of the same part.
- Keep the lead centered and loudest.
- Pan the stacks in pairs, left and right, at different widths: 30%, 60%, 100%.
- Pull the stacks 6 to 10 dB under the lead and cut more low end on them than on the lead.
- Bus them together and run one compressor and one reverb across the whole group.
No time to record twelve takes? RysUpDoubler builds extra voices from one take. Real stacks still sound best, so use it to thicken, not to replace. More on this in how to layer vocals.
Lil Peep vocal chain settings
Run these in this order on the lead vocal. Adjust to your voice and mic.
1. Pitch correction
Set the key of the song first. Use a medium retune speed so the notes lock but slides still breathe. In RysUpTune, start with the speed in the middle and humanize turned up a little, then speed it up only on the hook if you want more of the tuned color.
2. EQ
- High pass around 90 to 110 Hz to clear rumble.
- Cut 2 to 3 dB around 250 to 350 Hz if the vocal sounds boxy.
- Small lift around 3 kHz for words to cut through guitars.
- Do not over brighten. Peep's top end is smooth, not sparkly.
3. Compression
Ratio around 3:1, medium attack around 10 to 20 ms, release around 80 to 120 ms. Aim for 3 to 6 dB of reduction. You want the quiet lines to stay audible without crushing the emotion. RysUpComp does this job cleanly.
4. Saturation
This is the Peep flavor. Add warm tape or tube style saturation, then blend it in parallel at 20 to 40% so the words stay clear. If the beat has distorted guitars, push it a bit further. RysUpDistortion has a mix control for exactly this.
5. De essing
Saturation brings up sibilance. Put a de esser after it and catch just the loudest S's.
6. Reverb
Plate or hall on a send, decay 2 to 3 seconds, predelay 20 to 40 ms. Roll the low end off the return below 300 Hz and darken the top above 8 kHz. Send more to the hook than the verse.
7. Delay
Quarter note delay on a send, feedback 25 to 35%, filtered dark. Use it to throw the ends of lines into the beat.
Settings cheat sheet
| Stage | Starting setting | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Pitch | Medium retune, humanize on | Locked melody that still sounds human |
| EQ | HPF 100 Hz, cut 300 Hz, lift 3 kHz | Clear words over guitar loops |
| Compressor | 3:1, 15 ms attack, 3 to 6 dB GR | Keeps quiet lines up front |
| Saturation | Parallel, 20 to 40% mix | The gritty emo edge |
| Reverb | Plate or hall, 2 to 3 s decay | Distance and sadness |
| Delay | 1/4 note, 25 to 35% feedback | Throws on line endings |
| Stacks | 6 to 12 takes, panned in pairs | The wall of hooks |
Recording tips that matter
- Sing quieter than you think. Get close to the mic and keep it intimate.
- Keep the imperfect takes. A crack in the voice is part of the vibe.
- Record with the reverb in your headphones. It changes how you perform.
- Do not stress about gear. If Peep could start mixing in GarageBand, your setup is fine.
Get your levels right before any of this with how to record vocals like a pro.
Skip the setup: the preset
Building this chain from scratch takes a while. The Lil Peep vocal preset has the grit, the dark space and the width already dialed in, so you can open it and start recording.
New to presets? Read how to install vocal presets. Want similar artists? Check the Juice WRLD vocal guide and the Trippie Redd vocal preset guide.
Pair it with the RysUp lineup
These two do the heavy lifting in this chain.
RysUpTune: real time pitch correction with speed and humanize
RysUpDoubler: extra voices for thick hooks
Want every Rys Up plugin? RysUpSuite covers the full lineup for $9.99 a month billed yearly. See everything on the plugin lineup and install with the RysUpHub.
Questions producers ask
What autotune did Lil Peep use? We have not found a verified source naming his exact tuning plugin. You can get the style with any real time pitch corrector set to a medium retune speed with the key set correctly.
How do you get the Lil Peep vocal effect? Light tuning, parallel saturation, a dark 2 to 3 second reverb, a quarter note delay, and a hook stacked 6 to 12 times.
What DAW did Lil Peep use? His collaborator Smokeasac said Peep mixed his own early tracks in GarageBand. The chain in this guide works in any DAW.
Is there a Lil Peep vocal preset for FL Studio? Yes. The Lil Peep vocal preset comes in FL Studio, Logic Pro, GarageBand, Pro Tools, Ableton, Fender Studio Pro, Cubase, Waves and RysUpAudio versions.
Do I need expensive plugins? No. The sound comes from performance, stacks and space more than gear.
Source. Recording process details come from DJBooth, November 9, 2018, quoting producer Smokeasac. Preset pricing and DAW versions were read from the live product page on October 20, 2026.